1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-side connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle-side connector to be connected to a battery mounted in a vehicle is known, for example, from Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-221612. A charging connector connected to a power supply is connectable to this vehicle-side connector and the battery is charged by properly connecting the vehicle-side connector and the charging connector.
Further, a plurality of wires are drawn out from the vehicle-side connector and a relay circuit including a resistor is provided among these wires. When the vehicle-side connector and the charging connector are connected, the relay circuit is closed and a predetermined voltage value corresponding to the resistor is transmitted to a controller on a vehicle side, whereby a connected state of the vehicle-side connector and the charging connector is detected. Such a technology is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2013-5520.
In the case of constructing a relay circuit including an electronic component such as a resistor as described above, the electronic component is soldered and molded between wires such as a ground line and a signal line drawn out from the vehicle-side connector. Thus, man-hours for constructing the relay circuit are increased. Further, since a mounting space for the vehicle-side connector is limited with the enlargement of the battery, space saving of the relay circuit has been desired.
The present invention was completed based on the above situation and an object thereof is to reduce man-hours for constructing a relay circuit and realize space saving of the relay circuit.
To achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a vehicle-side connector to be connected to a battery mounted in a vehicle, including a housing configured such that a charging connector is connected thereto, a plurality of vehicle-side terminals individually accommodated into a plurality of cavities provided in the housing and configured to be individually connected to a plurality of charging terminals provided in the charging connector when the housing and the charging connector are connected, a retainer configured to retain the vehicle-side terminals accommodated in the cavities, and a relay circuit unit assembled into the retainer and having one end connected to one of the plurality of vehicle-side terminals and the other end connected to the vehicle-side terminal different from that connected to the one end out of the plurality of vehicle-side terminals.